Tajanlangit
Diocesan Shrine of St. Alijis, Bacolod City
uilt in record time of 2 Years and 10 months and started only P150,00, The Church of St. Jude Thaddeus in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City Never fails to awe and inspire.
“It is a beautiful gift from God.” Enthused then Bacolod Bishop Camilo D. Gregorio when it officially opened on October 28, 1997. “It is a monument
to the spirit of community sharing.” Said President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. To the faithful, however, it is nothing short of a miracle. Rising out of the land where sugarcane grew in the past, in a place that was more rural than urban even when it was suburb, the church of St. Jude Thaddeus has become a focal point of faith, a testament to the unerring grace of God and a very real and concrete proof of it’s namesake’s universal reputation as the saint of hopeless or desperate cases. From a chaplaincy, Barangay Alijis (Year 2000 Population: 18,000) was evated into a parish at the same time the church was opened until 1991, When Fr. Felix P. Pasquin was permanently assigned to the chaplaincy, the community had to content itself with a visiting priest from parishes it wqas attached. Before the magnificent church was built, however, the residents of Alijis had already proven they were a people of faith in 1976 they came together, and decided they needed a saint to which they would dedicate their place. They picked St. Jude Thaddeus on the recommendation of publisher Mdesto P. Sa-onoy, a devotee who donated the first statue of the saint. And then pooling their resources together, they bought a foreclosed residence in one of the villages and converted it into a place of worship. Here people would flock when special novena for the saint was said on Thursday and on his feastday in October. Pretty soon, it was evident they needed a bigger place of worship. Engineer Mario S. Macainan and his brother, Fr. Marcito S. Macainan MSC, DONATED THE 5,396 Sq. meter lot, Architect Ramiro Ramiro L. Garcia Jr., volunteered and devotees- from the poorest of the poor to the wealthiest and most powerful pitched in for construction. Architect and councillor Ramiro “Chick” L. Garcia Jr. did the the wonderful design, constructed and supervised the whole project including the building of the rectory gratis et amore. Donation boxes were placed in corner sari sari stores, which were filled with the hard earned centavos of the while devotees from all over the country and even abroad, hearing about the construction, would drop by and give. Sometimes the donation came in kind, sometimes in cold cash, the biggest single envelope bulged with P732,000 in it. One of the generous contributors was then Vice-President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, a devotee, who celebrated his thanksgiving Mass at the St. Jude Thaddeus Diocesan Shrine after he won the presidency in may 1998 elections. The solemn dedeication and blessing of the church was done on October 28, 1997 with his Eminence Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal of Cebu officiating. In attendance were Bacolod bishop Camilo D. Gregorio, Bishop Emeritus Vicente G. Salgado and priests from the diocese of Bacolod, Kabankalan, San Carlos and the Archdiocese of Jaroand countless other Parishioners, devotees and guests. The day of the solemn dedication saw the elevation of the chaplaincy into a new parish and of the newly-built church as a diocesan shrine, through the decrees promulgated by Bacolod Bishop Camilo D. Gregorio. Felix Pasquin was installed as the first parish priest and rector of the shrine. The miracle did not end with the construction Parish council president and councillor Pepito T. Malapitan said the biggest miracle here is the revival of the faith in the community. Even those who have strayed have returned, he added. With 85 percent of the residents Catholics, almost the entire barangay is now vey active with the church, he said. Interestingly, Malapitan said the economic development of the barangay accelerated with the opening of the church, a fact that he also attributes to the working of the saint. “ We surrender everything to him.” He said, ‘’and so he take care of us.”
The list of cases of individual miracles or wonderful manifestation of God’s providence and special grace”, as Fr. Pasquin puts it – is getting longer and longer. Pasquin notes how prayer petitions, like fr successful board and bar exams, would eventually become thanksgiving prayers many weeks after. And then there are inexplicable manifestations of the saint in many faithful’s life. There was that sick baby who told her parents she saw St. Jude and that the saint patted her head, right there was a growth. Her operation was successful. There was the smoker whoquit after 18 years of ni****ne addiction; the traveller who suddenly got a taxi cab at a place he feared he would not, and iit was getting dark and the rainwater was rising in his feet; the cancer patient who was treated; the mother who successfully had a son she eventually name Jude; the couple who prayed for a child and was granted; the government employee who suddenly and for no reason got his retirement that had been stuck in the bureaucracy for over two years already. In the most of these cases, the conclusion that St. Jude played a part in them was inevitable: the smoker was praying for 40 day novena when he conquered the habit; while waiting for a ride, the traveller was already near tears and had just finished praying the novena when the cab came; the cancer patient’s relatives had prayed to the saint for his healing; the mother and the childless couple had already started the feeling desperate about their problems when they turned to the saint; the government employee got his retirement exactly on the last day of his wife’s 40 day novena to the saint. There are just some of the cases that had reached the office of the parish. To be sure, there must be countless others out there, unrecorded, but are nevertheless serving as water for the seeds of faith to sprout, grow leaves, and bloom to full flowering under the loving care of St. Jude Thaddeus. JUBILEE GEM
October 28. 2001 marks the silver anniversary Fiesta of St. This event brings us back 25 years ago to the very first fiesta celebrated by the community upon the initiative of Cabeza Mayor Bert Berezo, Mayor Cabezas, Julian Calamungay, Salvacion Maguad, Lourdes Jungco and Cabezas: Dalmacio Limsiaco, Rogeelio Dorin, Ireneo Demigillo, Teofila Diopenes, Aurelia Sobrevilla, Lorena Flores, and Carolina Concepcion. What was planted In the seventies had been watered, nurtured and cultivated especially by the community’s devotion to and apostolate of the Barangay sang Virgen under the selfless and very dedicated leadership and shepherding of Center Datu Ernesto Flores, Jr. Yes in the words of the holy father, we look at the past wih gratitude, we live the present with enthusiasm and we look forward to the future with confidence.
